TSAMTO, December 6. Egypt is negotiating with the Republic of Korea within the framework of the licensed production project of the K-2 Black Panther MBT and the K-9 Thunder ACS.
As reported by Defensa.com Speaking to the Egyptian media at the EDEX 2021 exhibition, Jeff Sing, Director of Public Relations at the South Korean company Hanwha Techwin, stressed that the company is ready to provide the Egyptian side with all the specifications of the proposed weapons.
The publication notes that in recent years, several rounds of negotiations have taken place between Egypt and South Korea on the acquisition of the K-9 Thunder ACS, which were tested in Egypt in 2017. The new artillery systems, which are planned to be produced under license, will replace a number of outdated artillery systems of the Egyptian army (currently, about 500 Soviet and American-made artillery systems are in service with the Egyptian Army).
According to experts, the deal on the self-propelled gun K-9 "Thunder", if implemented, will be a qualitative "breakthrough" for the Egyptian Armed Forces in terms of replacing a large number of outdated Soviet and American artillery systems.
Information about Egypt's negotiations with the Republic of Korea on the joint production of the K-2 Black Panther MBT does not seem entirely logical due to the fact that if it is implemented, Egypt's CBT fleet will be redundant and, in addition, South Korean tanks will become the third main type of MBT in the country's army, which will complicate the overall maintenance and maintenance of the entire tank fleet.
Currently, the fleet of armored vehicles of the Egyptian army has more than 1,000 MBT M1 "Abrams", produced since 1993 under an American license. In 2020, Cairo signed an agreement on the licensed assembly of about 500 Russian T-90MS tanks, which are also planned to be produced in Egypt.
The head of the Egyptian Ministry of Transport, Major General Kamel Al-Wazir, confirmed in June 2020 that it is planned to assemble about 500 Russian T-90MS tanks from machine kits supplied by Uralvagonzavod RPC JSC at Egyptian facilities.
According to unofficial sources, the contract for the construction of the T-90MS tank assembly plant has already been signed by the Egyptian Ministry of Defense Industry, Uralvagonzavod and Rosoboronexport.
Recall that Egypt's plans for the licensed production of 400 to 500 T-90 tanks have been known since 2016 (then it was about the T-90S/SK). However, this project has not moved into the phase of practical implementation.
